


A Hatching at Half-Circle Sea Hold

by Edonohana



Category: Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey
Genre: Fire Lizards, Gen, Hatching, References to Canon-Typical Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:33:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21895954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Edonohana/pseuds/Edonohana
Summary: “That’s a rather extraordinary proposal, Menolly,” said the Masterharper.
Comments: 90
Kudos: 309
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	A Hatching at Half-Circle Sea Hold

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kastaka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kastaka/gifts).



****

**Half-Circle Sea Hold**

Rinly and Gabila and Korin were out digging for clams and searching for fire lizard clutches when Rinly found the first spiderclaw of spring. She had been waiting for them to walk in from the sea to spawn ever since the air had begun to warm. Rinly snatched the plump crustacean from knee-deep water and cupped it in her hand, holding so still that it extended its eye-stalks to see if the predator had gone away.

A Turn or two ago, before they’d really known each other, they would have rushed back to the Hold with it. The first spiderclaw was said to bring good luck to its finder. But last Turn Menolly had disappeared, vanishing soon after the spiderclaws had first appeared. The adults told the children that she was merely lost, not dead, but Rinly didn’t know why they bothered with such an obvious lie. They were young, but they weren’t stupid. Everyone knew that “lost in a Threadfall” meant “devoured by Thread.”

Except, it turned out, that sometimes it meant “hiding in a cave with nine fire lizards” or “rescued by dragonriders.” 

Rinly and Gabila and Korin had spent a lot of the last Turn talking about other things everyone knew that might not be true after all. 

Maybe they would have become friends even if Menolly hadn’t vanished. She’d taught all the children the old ballads and Teaching songs, of course; that was how they knew her. But boys and girls weren’t usually friends, and Rinly and Gabila had always assumed they had nothing in common. If they hadn’t run into each other desperately searching for Menolly along the bluffs, with Rinly sniffling and Korin’s eyes redder than salt spray could account for and Gabila openly crying, they might never have spoken except in passing.

None of them had an ear for music. But Rinly had seen Menolly’s height and physical strength, and heard Menolly’s brother Alemi saying she could run faster than any boy in the Hold. “I used to think she might become a fisherwoman,” Rinly told Korin and Gabila. Then, emboldened by her own daring in saying even so much, she added, “So I wouldn’t have to be the first.”

“She was kind to me,” Korin said. “Even though I can’t sing a note. She said I knew the words and that was good enough. No one else ever says anything I do is good enough.”

And Gabila said, “The Lord Holder beat her for tuning. I was listening at the door, and I saw the blood on her shirt, after. But I heard her tuning the very next day. I was listening at the door—”

Rinly had laughed at that, and pretty, delicate-looking Gabila had rounded on her with a startling fierceness, saying, “Yes, I listen at doors! I wish I was as brave as her—then I’d walk inside and say what I think, instead of just listening and thinking it!”

And then Ranelle had found them, huddled together and talking intently, and given them all a hard smack for idling when there was work to be done. She’d assumed they’d run off to play like little children, which had insulted all three of them, but none of them said a word. They didn’t want one slap to turn into a full beating, which it might have if they’d revealed that they’d been searching for Menolly in defiance of Sea Holder Yanus’s orders. 

And now a Turn had gone by, and everyone knew Menolly wasn’t dead. She was in Harper Hall with her nine fire lizards! 

Rinly and Gabila and Korin had been delighted to hear about that, but over time their happiness had faded into a bittersweet wistfulness. Menolly had escaped, but they were still trapped in Half-Circle Sea Hold, where the Lord Yanus’s opinions on fisherwomen and other new ideas hadn’t changed a whit. 

Fire lizards were real and could be Impressed, but the other clutch found near Half-Circle Sea Hold had been taken away and distributed among important people. No matter how hard they searched, they never found anything but a few broken eggshells. 

Korin had convinced them to venture farther than ever to get to this sheltered bay, inexplicably certain that if there was a clutch anywhere, it would be there. But once it became clear that there was no clutch to be found, they had scattered, dividing the beach in thirds to dig for sweet-fleshed black clams. It was then that Rinly had found the spiderclaw.

She called out to Gabila and Korin. They came splashing to her side, their baskets of clams and digging tools in their hands.

“Look,” Rinly said. “The first spiderclaw of the Turn. It’s good luck for us.”

“Good luck for _you_ ,” Gabila corrected her. 

“I was thinking we could share it,” Rinly said hesitantly. “If we say we all found it…”

“It doesn’t matter what you _say,_ ” Gabila pointed out. “What matters is what really happened.”

“It’s not good luck for the spiderclaw,” Korin said, and seemed surprised when the girls snickered. Abruptly, he said, “Put it back.”

“What?” exclaimed Rinly. “So someone else can find it, and get our luck?”

“Put it in the deep water,” he said. “It’s done laying; it won’t come back. And no one else comes this far anyway.” 

As the girls stared at him, he spoke slowly, as if he was searching for the words to explain something he already understood. “Half-Circle Sea Hold has done everything the same way forever.” Looking at Rinly, he said, “Women don’t go out on the fishing boats, even if they’re stronger than some of the men who do.” To Gabila, he said, “Women can marry a Sea Holder and be the Holder’s lady, but they can’t be Sea Holder themselves.”

“And no one ever leaves,” said Gabila. “Except to foster at another Sea Hold maybe a little bit less miserable than this one, and come back the next Turn. I understand why you want to get out, Korin, but not why you want to come back. If I had anywhere better to go that would take me, I’d be gone like a fingertail down a gull’s throat!”

“Because I want to change things _here_ , and I can’t if everything I know is what I learned here,” Korin said patiently; they’d had this argument plenty of times before. “Anyway, Half-Circle Sea Hold always takes the first spiderclaw back to the Hold to show it off. We don’t want to do what it’s always done, so let’s do something different now.”

Rinly wasn’t quick like Gabila or deep like Korin. (Though she could carry both of them on her back, which she privately preferred to anything you could do with your head or heart.) But she couldn’t help noticing that the spiderclaw wasn’t scrambling to escape. It sat placidly in her palm, its feelers waving gently and its eyestalks fully extended. _That_ certainly was different. 

The three of them waded out deep and released the spiderclaw. The cove’s clear water was sheltered enough that it had only ripples, not waves. They could watch the spiderclaw sink to the bottom, legs waving, then land in a puff of sand and walk steadily back out to sea.

“Come on,” said Rinly. “We need to fill our baskets quick, or they’ll wonder why were gone so long.”

****

**Harper Hall**

Menolly filled her lungs as if she was about to sing. The comparison calmed her nerves. Her voice came out clear and steady when she said, “Master Robinton, I’d like the clutch I found to go to the boys and girls of Half-Circle Sea Hold.”

“That’s a rather extraordinary proposal, Menolly,” said the Masterharper. “Especially as you and T’gellan already handed it over to Benden Weyr.”

“I know,” Menolly replied. “But if _you_ asked the Weyrleaders…”

“Ah-ha.” With a wry smile, Master Robinton said, “It may seem as if the Masterharper can do anything, but extracting thirty-three fire lizard eggs from Benden Weyr may be beyond even my capabilities.”

Daring, Menolly pointed out, “You extracted me.”

“My dear girl, anyone could see that you belonged in Harper Hall. But it’s far less clear that those eggs belong to Half-Circle Sea Hold. Sea Holder Yanus gave Benden Weyr permission to take any they find.”

Menolly had already braced herself to hear her father’s name, so she didn’t flinch at it. “If Korin and Gabila and Rinly had come to that cove just a little bit sooner, they’d have discovered the eggs themselves. _They_ didn’t give permission. I feel like I stole the clutch from them.”

“What would have happened if you hadn’t taken it, I wonder,” mused Master Robinton. “From the conversation you overheard, I expect they’d have told no one and tried to divide the clutch amongst themselves. Just think, Menolly, your claim to having the most fire lizards on Pern might be threatened!”

Menolly laughed, then quickly sobered. “I can’t imagine that they’d dare try to smuggle the eggs inside the Hold, under my— under Lord Yanus’s nose.” A phantom pain traced the long-healed weals on her back. Beauty, who was perched on her shoulder, crooned sympathetically and nuzzled her cheek. “I expect they’d have left them where they were and kept returning to the spot. If they were lucky, they’d be there at the right time and Impress a few. But I’d like all the eggs to Impress.”

“Would Yanus even accept the gift, if it was offered?”

“No. He’d decline politely, since it would come from the Weyrleader, but he’d decline. He’d think of fire lizards as nuisances that take up time and attention that could be spent on work. Lord Yanus doesn’t see the value in anything that you can survive without.”

“Like music,” said the Masterharper, his tone so sympathetic that it nearly brought tears to her eyes. “Like love. Though I’m not sure you _can_ survive without them. Not truly… So, Menolly, how do you plan to bring him round?”

“I don’t,” she replied. “If you can persuade the Weyrleaders to let me have the clutch, I’ll arrange for it to be discovered just as it’s hatching.”

“My dear child, you are full of surprises.” Master Robinton leaned forward to scratch Zair’s eye ridges, then pushed back his silvering hair. “Now, imagine me as Lessa.” 

She suppressed a giggle. The wry, gentle Harper was less like Lessa than anyone she’d ever known. Except, she supposed, for their intelligence and force of personality. 

In a sharp tone that was a perfect imitation of the Weyrwoman’s, he said, “Why? Whatever is the point of this ridiculous idea?”

Here Menolly felt on steady ground. She’d know the Masterharper would ask, as the Weyrleaders would ask, and she’d thought out her answer carefully before making the request. “Benden Weyr and Harper Hall are trying to change Pern, to make it more flexible. More open to new ideas. The reason I found the clutch at all—the reason you and F’lar requested that I have my fair help with the search for fire lizard eggs—was the hope that letting holders Impress fire lizards would bring change to the Holds.”

“Very good,” Master Robinton murmured in his own voice, and gestured for her to continue.

She went on, “Harper Elgion says little true change has come to Half-Circle Sea Hold. I’ve heard you say that little true change has come to most of the Holds of Pern. If we can crack the shell of the most difficult, hidebound Hold in all of Pern, then the others will surely follow.”

In his Lessa voice, he asked, “Why only boys and girls? Why not everyone?”

“Most of the adults won’t want fire lizards any more than Sea Holder Yanus,” said Menolly. “But the young people will. And they’re the future of Pern.”

Master Robinton smiled, entirely himself now. “Very good. It’s not everyone who can both write a persuasive song and make a persuasive argument. But, my dear child, are you sure you want to do this?”

“It was my idea,” she began, puzzled, then understood what he meant. 

When she’d lingered in the secluded cove while T’gellan had carried the eggs to the larger beach where Monarth was waiting, she’d instinctively hidden when she’d heard voices, and hadn’t revealed herself even when she realized that they were only children of whom she’d been fond. She’d written to her brother Alemi to let him know that she was alive and well in Harper Hall, but she hadn’t seen him since she’d first run away. Even the thought of setting foot in Half-Circle Sea Hold again made her feel sick.

 _I’m no longer Sea Holder Yanus’s disgrace of a daughter,_ Menolly reminded herself. _I’m Journeyman Menolly._

She tried not to think that she might become the disgrace of Harper Hall if her plan ended in disaster. 

Beauty, sensitive to her mood, chirruped and nuzzled her cheek, and Auntie Two landed on her shoulder to do the same. She stroked their soft hides, and those of Diver and Lazybones in her lap. Their whirling eyes slowed, shifting to the blue of contentment. 

How could she let her own fears and old hurts hold her back from giving such a gift to those lonely, rebellious, frustrated young people of Half-Circle Sea Hold who hadn’t managed to escape?

“I won’t need to go into Half-Circle Sea Hold myself,” Menolly said. “I won’t even need to see anyone from the Hold other than Harper Elgion.” 

Zair, sprawled in sleep across Master Robinton’s wrist and forearm, opened his eyes and let out a quizzical chirp. The Masterharper stroked his head, but his gaze was on Menolly, and it held compassion and kindness as well as an amused appreciation of her careful plannning. 

“You made a good case,” he said. “But the Weyrleaders will have one more question. They wanted to distribute that clutch amongst the Lord Holders and Mastercrafters. The ones who set the tone and make the rules. It’s all well and good to say that young people are the future, but what change can they bring _now?_ ”

Menolly hesitated to bring up the best argument against that, for it required putting herself forward. But here she was, sitting across from the Masterharper of Pern. She could only be here because of his faith in her. And if she didn’t always feel that she lived up to it, she knew that he never doubted her.

“I’m not a Lord Holder,” she said. “But look what happened when I Impressed mine.”

“And all of Pern is the better for it.” Master Robinton’s smile told her that he had maneuvered her into making that exact point. “I’ll speak with F’lar and Lessa over a bottle of Benden Red. If I succeed, the clutch is yours.”

****

**Benden Weyr**

Master Robinton blithely informed her that he’d secured the clutch and the watch dragon would take her to Benden Weyr, adding at the last instant, “Perhaps you shouldn’t go out of your way to encounter Lessa.”

Menolly took his warning very much to heart. Unfortunately, she managed to almost collide with Lessa in a hallway immediately upon entering the Weyr. The look the diminutive Weyrwoman gave her and her fair sent all nine of her fire lizards _between_ in an instant. Menolly only wished she could follow them.

“The things I agree to because that man asked me.” Lessa’s annoyance was an almost palpable force, like the air before a lightning storm. 

Menolly gulped. “I’m sorry, Weyrwoman.”

“What? Sorry that he cares for you so much that you can persuade him to persuade me to allow the most absurd and outrageous plan I’ve heard of in all my days?”

F’lar appeared beside her, his amber eyes glinting with mischief. He gave a tug on her long black braid, a playful gesture that Menolly found hard to believe even as she saw it. “As absurd and outrageous as going back in time six hundred Turns?”

Lessa retrieved her hair from his grasp, but with a twitch of her lips that was close to a smile. The atmosphere calmed. “Let’s hope this one is as productive. Menolly, T’gellan has already fetched Elgion on a pretense. They’re both in his weyr with the eggs. Mind you find us another clutch to replace this one!”

“I’ll do my best,” Menolly began. But Lessa had already swept out. 

Menolly fled to T’gellan’s weyr, thoroughly unnerved. There she found not only T’gellan with his bronze Monarth, but Mirrim with her three fire lizards, along with a delighted Elgion examining the pot of heated sand that held thirty-three fire lizard eggs. The spicy scent of Monarth’s hide filled the warm air.

“I’m amazed Lessa and F’lar agreed to this wherrybrained scheme,” Mirrim said to Menolly without even greeting her first, as if they’d already been arguing over it for an hour. “After all the difficulty finding clutches, we’re letting an entire one go to one Hold, and not even the leaders of it, at that. And what’s worse, we’re risking all the fire lizards going wild if a random bunch of Hold-bred children don’t Impress!”

T’gellan cleared his throat, looking meaningfully at Mirrim, and said, “How lovely to see you, Menolly.”

“It’s been two whole days since we saw you last,” said Mirrim, imitating his tone, and the two of them laughed.

After a brief hesitation, Menolly laughed with them. It had taken her a while to get accustomed to T’gellan’s teasing, more than it had to get used to Mirrim’s blunt manner. “Greetings to you, too. And to you, Harper Elgion. And you, Monarth.” She nodded to Mirrim’s fire lizards. “Reppa, Lok, Tolly.”

As her own fire lizards began to appear around her, T’gellan solemnly greeted every single one. 

“I think it’s a good idea,” Elgion said, nodding at the pot of eggs. “And not just because I’m hoping to Impress one myself! Half-Circle Sea Hold isn’t just hidebound. It’s joyless. You can’t imagine what it’s like to have it be the only place you’ve ever known.”

Menolly, who didn’t need to imagine it, said nothing. But her fire lizards crooned in a comforting harmony, and Beauty wound her tail around Menolly’s throat. 

“I can imagine,” said Mirrim, with such a fierce glance at Menolly that she briefly thought Mirrim was angry at her. “They had Menolly, and they didn’t appreciate her! They deliberately let her hand heal badly so she couldn’t play! They forbade her from making her own tunes—even forbade her from singing. They don’t deserve fire lizards!”

It was only then that Menolly saw the heart of Mirrim’s objection. It touched her, as much as Master Robinton agreeing to talk to the Weyrleaders on her behalf had touched her. She was no longer alone; she had friends who wanted to help her, protect her, even take revenge for her.

A Turn ago, Menolly had been so unused to kindness that she would have burst into tears. Now, though it struck her with the same force, she managed to keep back all but a prickling at the eyes.

“Mirrim.” Menolly put her hand on her friend’s shoulder. “The people who hurt me aren’t the ones who’ll get access to the clutch. The ones who will are the ones who are like me. If you can imagine the Hold, imagine me still trapped there without my fire lizards. And imagine what it would mean to me to stumble across a clutch.”

“I remember what it was what like for me at Southern Weyr. I had Brekke, of course. But I wanted… Oh, I don’t know. More, though I didn’t know what it was. I remember running to the beach, with no idea of what I would find there.” Mirrim’s serious face lit up with joyous memory. “And there was Reppa. And Lok. And Tolly. And then I knew what it was that I’d wanted. And I knew I’d never be lonely again.”

Elgion gave a wistful sigh. “I _will_ get one, won’t I?”

T’gellan patted his shoulder. “Bet you get a bronze. Bet you get two!”

The four of them worked out the details of their plan. The eggs were hard enough to be close to hatching, but Menolly couldn’t tell if they’d hatch in another day or another three. That prevented them from simply returning them to a beach and arranging for Elgion to lead the Hold’s boys and girls to it. But they couldn’t wait till Menolly’s fair began to hum, because then there wouldn’t be enough time to get the eggs to a beach, signal Elgion, and gather enough spiderclaws to feed them. 

Instead, they’d wait until Menolly was sure the Hatching would occur that day. Then she’d send one of her fair to visit Elgion, alerting him to lead an expedition to the beach to gather spiderclaws, and keep them there until the eggs hatched. 

In the meantime, T’gellan, Menolly, and Mirrim would fly to the beach, lightly cover the eggs in a spot secluded enough that it could have theoretically gone unseen, and return to Benden before Elgion arrived. 

“I often lead the children to gather berries and such,” Elgion said. “Anything to get outside! If it wasn’t for those expeditions and sailing with Alemi, and of course visiting Benden, I don’t think I could make myself stay.”

 _Alemi_ , Menolly thought with a pang. Surely her brother would love to have a fire lizard. And if anyone deserved one, it was he. “Does Alemi ever gather berries or spiderclaws with you?”

“No, he’s always off sailing,” Elgion replied. “It’s a shame. I wish we could hold back an egg for—”

Menolly held up her hand, cutting off his words. Beauty had begun to hum. A moment later, Rocky and Diver joined her. 

“Is it…?” Mirrim began, then gasped. “Look at Tolly’s eyes!”

They were whirling. So were Beauty’s. The rest of the fire lizards, both Menolly’s and Mirrim’s, joined the queen and her bronzes in their deep-throated hum. 

“The eggs!” Menolly exclaimed. “They’re hatching!”

“You said it wouldn’t be for at least another day,” Mirrim protested.

“I was wrong!”

“Monarth says to hurry.” T’gellan snatched up the bronze dragon’s riding straps. 

Mirrim scrambled to help him buckle them on, calling, “Menolly! Elgion! Get the pot and strap in!”

“Monarth can’t carry four,” Menolly protested. That was the least of their problems, but the rest were far too difficult to grapple with when they had thirty-three fire lizard eggs that were about to hatch, and a plan that was about to shatter like an eggshell. 

Mirrim gave a slightly wild laugh. “I’ll stay. Three fire lizards is plenty!”

“Menolly, hurry!” T’gellan extended his hand to her. 

In a daze, she scrambled onto Monarth’s back and strapped in, her hands shaking. Elgion passed the pot—now rocking—to her, and she tucked it into a saddlebag. He scrambled up behind her and fastened his straps.

Before Menolly could say a word, Monarth was in the air, spiraling up through the air of Benden Bowl. She could see the saddlebag bumping against his flank, its movements conveying impatience. 

_What in the world are we going to do?_ Menolly thought. _We can’t just run in with a clutch of hatching fire lizard eggs and dump them out on the Great Hall floor!_

Before she could think of a new plan, the freezing nothingness of _between_ took them.

****

**Half-Circle Sea Hold**

Rinly scrubbed the pot hard, taking out her frustration on its gleaming surface. She’d missed seeing the dragon come to fetch the Harper, and now she couldn’t even go out to gather spiderclaws. A southeaster had blown up soon after the dragon had departed, locking the boats in the Dock Cavern. All the fishermen were also stuck in the Hold, some grumbling at the missed day of work, some discussing how to improve their catch. Rinly, who would have enjoyed listening, was trapped in the water room, scrubbing pots with the girl children and old women.

Gabila, who had delicate skin and hated how sore the sand made her hands, was just as unhappy. So, Rinly had no doubt, was Korin, who was as uninterested in nets and rigging as Rinly was in the aunties’ endless gossip.

“Come out, quick!” An unfamiliar man’s voice rang out, startling Gabila into letting out a stifled shriek. A tall man in riding leathers stood in the doorway. “Yes, you. All you young folk, hurry, or you’ll miss the chance to Impress a fire lizard!”

Rinly stared at him, stunned, then dropped her pot and grabbed Gabila’s sandy hand. They ran after the man and through the kitchen, where women were rushing out with pots and platters of fish and meat and shellfish. As they ran, Rinly heard a faint hum that got louder as they came closer to the Great Hall.

Everyone in Half-Circle Sea Hold seemed to have crowded into the Great Hall. The tall man stood in the center of the room, directing the men to move aside the tables and benches. Two people in Harper blue were crouched at his feet, frantically removing sand from a big pot and spreading it out over the floor. Rinly couldn’t see their faces, but from his hair and build, one was their own Harper, Elgion. The other looked like a tall lanky boy. 

But Rinly didn’t give them a close inspection. Her attention was on the fire lizards perched on tables and the backs of chairs and on the shoulders of the boy Harper. Their heads were cocked, their brilliant eyes fixed on the pot and sand, their throats swollen and vibrating. The hum, she realized, was coming from them. They were more beautiful than any creature she’d ever seen, lithe and graceful, their hides bronze and brown, blue and green. One of them was gold.

Those lovely creatures were what would hatch from the eggs. And Rinly had the chance to Impress one.

“Listen!” shouted the man in riding leathers. “I’m T’gellan of Benden Weyr! We found a clutch of fire lizard eggs that we were going to take back to the Weyr, but once we took flight, my dragon warned me that they were about to hatch. It might kill them to hatch _between_ , and we couldn’t fly straight back because of the storm and that would take too long anyway—”

The lanky Harper pulling eggs from the pot gave a loud cough.

“So we brought them to you, in thanks for all that Half-Circle Sea Hold has tithed to Benden Weyr,” T’gellan declared. “Now Benden Weyr is giving you a precious gift: the chance to Impress a fire lizard!”

 _This is real,_ Rinly thought in awe. But she couldn’t quite believe it. Things like this just didn’t happen in Half-Circle Sea Hold.

Time seemed to slow as she looked around the Hall. She saw Sea Holder Yanus at the back of the Hall, staring at T’gellan in shock and impotent anger, his fist starting to rise. She saw Mavis, the Sea Holder’s lady, tugging his arm back down. She saw Korin staring at the eggs like all his dreams lay there, nested in sand. 

The lanky Harper boy glanced up, and Rinly saw that it wasn’t a boy at all. It was Menolly, still gawky and short-haired, wearing the insignia of a journeyman Harper. 

Rinly started to dart toward the eggs, but a hand came down hard on her shoulder. A woman hissed at her, “Not until Lord Yanus gives permission.”

All across the Hall, everyone was either being held back with a hand or a glare, or else watching the Sea Holder. 

Elgion stood up. His trained voice carried easily across the Hall, without having to shout like T’gellan. “Sea Holder, Lady Mavis, the place of honor is yours. Will you take it in the audience, or amongst the candidates for Impression?”

Before either could reply, Menolly stood and faced her parents. She had either grown since she’d left or else stood straighter now, for she was taller than her mother and as tall as her father. The exquisite queen fire lizard perched on her left shoulder, one of the bronzes on her right, and the little blue clung to her forearm, blending in with her sleeve. Rinly remembered Gabila’s story about Menolly being beaten by her father, and wondered if the blue tunic concealed scars. 

“In the audience, of course, Harper Elgion,” said Yanus to Elgion, turning away from his daughter. And, to T’gellan and sounding as if he was forcing the words through gritted teeth, “We’re honored by Benden’s gift.”

The hum of the fire lizards increased in intensity, and their eyes whirled faster. The eggs were now visibly rocking as the fledglings struggled to emerge. A few hairline cracks appeared.

“If you’re ten Turns or older and want a chance to Impress, make a circle around the eggs,” T’gellan called out. “Otherwise, sit down on the benches and watch! Everyone with food for the hatchlings, place it around the circle so the candidates can reach it.” 

Rinly’s shoulder was released. She dove for the floor, dragging Gabila with her. Her knees banged into the stone, but she hardly noticed. 

“Careful, Rinly,” Korin said belatedly, settling down beside them. 

“I want a queen,” Gabila whispered. “Like Menolly!”

“I want any of them,” Korin whispered back. Then, with a quick grin, “Like Menolly!”

Menolly addressed them. She spoke quickly, her eyes on the rocking eggs, but her voice was clear and strong, with not a word rushed or slurred. “Lure them to you with food and thoughts of affection. No grabbing. Once they’ve Impressed, you can pick them up. Think of how much you love them, how happy you’ll be if they choose you…”

Rinly drank in her words like cool water on a hot day. Now that she had actually seen fire lizards, she longed for one of her own in a way that she never had when they were just a dream and a story. 

_If only one of those eggs is mine,_ she thought, _I think I’d be happy even if I stay landbound for all my days._

Though she heard her words come out clear, Menolly’s throat felt dry. Her palms were sweating, her heart pounding. As soon as she’d stepped into the Hold, she’d frozen up inside, leaving T’gellan to strong-arm Yanus into allowing the Hatching and Elgion to manipulate him into accepting it with something resembling grace. 

_Everything is wrong,_ Menolly thought numbly. _Everything._

She’d meant to have the Hatching seem to occur naturally, not to mention discreetly and outside. Instead, they’d literally run shouting into the Hold. She’d meant the eggs to go only to the young people, but some of the candidates were seventy Turns if they were a day. She didn’t blame T’gellan—with Yanus and Mavi present, he’d had to either open it to everyone or present the clutch directly to Yanus and risk having him refuse it—but she felt like everything was breaking to pieces all around her.

Most of all, Menolly had intended to not be there. She’d hoped to never have to see her parents again, and there they were right across from her, with their anger and lack of love visible in every cutting glance. Menolly felt like she’d timed it to before she’d ever left. The Turn she’d spent in Harper Hall seemed to melt away like mist, leaving her as nothing more than Sea Holder Yanus’s useless, unwanted, unloved daughter.

“Menolly!” The voice was Alemi’s. 

She spun around and saw her brother running into the Hall. He was accompanied by several more men, all with sawdust sticking to their sweaty bodies. They must have been repairing ships in the Dock Cavern, and had run out when they’d heard the yells for everyone to come quick. 

All of them stopped short. The men who’d come with Alemi stared bewilderedly down at the eggs. And Alemi gazed at Menolly with the love and warmth and affection and pride that, she realized, he’d always had for her, long before she’d ever done anything worthy of note.

The choral hum of the fire lizards stopped. In the sudden silence, the pop of a cracking egg produced gasps from the crowd.

A tiny fire lizard lifted his head from the shards of his shell, his hide wet and glistening, his translucent wings spread. 

“A bronze,” murmured T’gellan. “That’s a good omen.”

Menolly grabbed her brother by the shoulders. “Alemi, sit down! Don’t you want to Impress?”

“Impress?” Alemi, looking slightly dazed, sat down in the circle. 

Menolly snatched up the first thing she could reach—it was, she realized with a shudder, a filet of smoked packtail—and shoved it into his hand. “Feed them!”

More eggs broke open. Three little greens, two browns, and a blue emerged and began to totter in different directions, creeling with hunger, their eyes whirling red. Candidates eagerly held out bits of raw fish, smoked fish, whole shellfish, and roast wherry. 

The little bronze didn’t look to the left or right. Slowly, tottering on unfamiliar legs, he made his way straight to Alemi and snapped up a huge bite of packtail. 

“Don’t let him choke,” Menolly urged. “Break off bits for him.”

Alemi, smiling incredulously, stroked the tiny bronze with one hand while flaking off bite-sized chunks of packtail with the other. His bronze hopped into his lap, coiled his tail around Alemi’s wrist for balance, and gobbled them down.

“Just like a tiny Monarth,” T’gellan murmured. 

Menolly could see from his dreamy expression that he was reliving the moment when he’d Impressed his dragon. She too was remembering those desperate, joyous moments in the cave, when she’d thought only to save lives and had also changed her own. 

When she managed to force her gaze away from Alemi, she saw that several other candidates had already Impressed. One of the men who’d run in with Alemi was cradling a lovely little green, an old woman had the blue, and a girl whom Menolly knew for a fact had barely nine Turns and must have somehow snuck into the circle had managed to Impress both the browns. She had one on each knee and was feeding them spiderclaws with an enraptured look on her chubby face. 

Except for Alemi and his bronze, none were the Impressions Menolly had imagined. And yet all of them seemed just as right and perfect and meant to be, from the hard-faced fisherman crooning to his delicate green to the little girl with her browns to the blue determinedly climbing up the smock of the most gossipy of all the old gossips in the kitchen. 

More eggs popped open, and more fire lizards made their choices. Another old auntie coaxed a green into her wrinkled hands, and a brown headed straight for the sweet-natured lad who’d been the one person in Menolly’s classes with an ear for rhythm. 

But Elgion hadn’t yet managed to make an Impression, nor had the three who’d inspired it all. Korin sat still and cupped a handful of spiderclaws, Rinly madly waved a chunk of wherry back and forth, and Gabila held out another filet of packtail, babbling, “Come here, little beauty, pretty little thing, come here, come here, little sweet…”

 _Come on_ , Menolly thought, echoing her. _They deserve it!_

Her sister Sella, who had been sitting rigidly on the bench beside Mavi, abruptly got up, grabbed a piece of fish, and pushed her way into the circle. 

“She can’t do that,” Menolly whispered indignantly to T’gellan. “Can she?”

He shrugged. “Well, you can’t at a dragon Hatching, but…”

A green swatted another green out of the way, hissing, then lunged for Sella’s fish. 

“Oh, well,” Menolly muttered, resigned. “I can’t say they’re not well-matched.”

As T’gellan chuckled, one of the larger eggs cracked open. Everyone drew in their breath as a tiny queen stepped out. Beauty crooned to her encouragingly as the little queen looked around, her faceted eyes whirling, and wobbled her way to Gabila. The golden fire lizard looked up at her with adoring opalescent eyes.

“Me?” Gabila said disbelievingly.

“Yes, you!” called Menolly. “Feed her, feed her!”

Gabila hurriedly fed her queen, tears of pure joy running down her face.

“Oh, good for you, Gabila,” said Rinly, squeezing her shoulders with the hand not holding the chunk of dripping raw wherry. “You got the—ow!”

A small blue was trying to climb into her lap by sinking his talons into her bare ankle. Blood trickled down, but Rinly was undismayed. She scooped him up and fed him, singing a sea chanty under her breath and off-key. Menolly couldn’t help a slight wince, but the blue seemed to enjoy Rinly’s singing, inserting equally off-key chirps in the brief moments when his mouth wasn’t full.

As always, the Hatching went by fast. When Menolly looked around again, only four fledglings were left unpaired: two greens, a brown, and a blue. And no sooner had she registered that than one of the greens let out a piercing shriek, spread her wings, and launched herself at a delighted girl of Menolly’s age. 

Elgion, sitting near where Menolly stood, had still had no luck and was beginning to look downcast. Rinly and her blue hit a particularly discordant note, making Menolly wince again. But that gave her an idea. Leaning over, she whispered, “Elgion, sing.”

He looked up at her, startled; no doubt he’d forgotten that she was there. Then he smiled and nodded. Menolly half-expected him to sing her own “Fire Lizard Song,” but what he began to sing, very softly, was a lullaby. 

It seemed very appropriate to Menolly that the Harper’s song attracted the blue. The little fire lizard tottered toward him and began eating out of his hand. 

There were only two fledglings left, but Menolly still had hope for Korin. Surely one of them might choose him. 

He tipped his hand, pouring the spiderclaws out on to the floor. The clack of shell against stone attracted the attention of the two remaining fire lizards. The brown and the green scrambled for the spiderclaws, sometimes bumping into each other but never hissing. They both began to rip apart the spiderclaws as Korin stroked their wedge-shaped heads. Their eyes whirled with the blue of contentedness. 

And with that, the Hatching was over. Menolly stretched and sighed. “I wish it could have lasted longer.”

T’gellan grinned. “Don’t be greedy. You got what you wanted.”

Alemi glanced up, his face radiant and his bronze fire lizard asleep in his arms. “Menolly, Elgion’s been telling me all about you—your fire lizards, how you became a journeyman, everything. I’m so proud of you.”

They embraced, taking care not to disturb the little bronze. When they parted, Menolly’s eyes stung with tears, but they were tears of joy. “I’m proud of _you_ ,” she said. 

She glanced across the room at her parents. Their eyes met. Once again, she saw only coldness and dislike in their expressions. Whether or not they guessed at her part in usurping their authority, they didn't like that it had happened and they didn't like that she was there to witness it. 

They took no pride in her journeyman's colors, only resentment that she'd proved them wrong and anger at the change she'd brought with her mere existence. They'd turned down the chance at the joy of Impression, and turned down the love they might have given and received from her. Worst of all, they seemed to have no regrets over any of it. And that meant that they would never change.

But Alemi still had his arm around her, and Half-Circle Sea Hold, once so dour and gray, was now filled with the creels and chirps of brilliantly colored fire lizards. Now that the Hatching was over, her own fair were swooping and diving and fluttering around, snatching up the leftover food and squabbling over choice pieces.

Menolly gazed at her parents steadily, and they were the ones who turned away. 

Elgion came up, his face alight and the blue fire lizard perched on his shoulder. She saw him take in the scene with a quick glance before he said, “Alemi has a little skiff, Menolly. He and I go sailing in it. You should come some time.”

“I will,” Menolly promised. And she meant it. 

Visibly reining in his temper, Yanus called for a feast to honor the bronze rider who had brought them Benden’s gift. Mavis went off to oversee it, grumbling under her breath at the lack of help from Sella and the other women who were now too busy with their fledglings to help. 

Since Menolly had her hands free, she pitched in to help clean the Hall and rearrange the tables. The lucky Holders who had Impressed clustered around Menolly once T’gellan introduced her as an expert in fire lizards. 

As she discussed the importance of oiling their hides and not letting them overeat, she realized that the Hatching had made changes in the Hold already, ones she hadn’t expected. Women who normally would have been working in the kitchen were instead in the Great Hall, talking with the men about topics on which they were all equal as beginners. Korin and young Deriana were looked at with new respect as the only candidates who’d Impressed more than one fledgling, as was Gabila for Impressing the queen. 

Rinly sat beside the hard-faced fisherman with the green. Normally fishermen didn’t speak to young girls except to order them to help take in the catch, but the two of them were chatting away, admiring each other’s fire lizards and discussing her ambition to sail out on the fishing boats. 

“What do you think you’ll call your blue?” asked the fisherman.

“Ripple,” said Rinly. 

The fisherman nodded. “A good name for a fire lizard who’ll go out to sea with you.”

Everyone normally lived such separate lives in the Hold, Menolly thought. The old, the young, men, women. But the fire lizards had cut across those established groups, bringing all the ones who had Impressed together. Whether that would end by breaking down boundaries in general or only by forming a new group, only time would tell. But Menolly thought that both Master Robinton and the Benden Weyrleaders would be very interested to hear about it. 

“What will you call yours?” Rinly asked.

The fisherman rubbed the eye ridges of his little green with a gnarled forefinger. “Journey.”

“Good name,” said Rinly.

_The girl with the blue, the man with the green…  
The fisher, the child, the elder, the queen…_

Menolly caught Yanus’s disapproving gaze on her, and broke off the tune she’d begun to hum. Then, deliberately, she began again, tapping her foot to the beat. She wasn’t just a daughter, she was a sister. A teacher. A bringer of change. No one could stop her now from singing her own songs.


End file.
